Nissan Boosts Russians Expansion

While most car makers are focusing on China as the key market for future growth, Nissan is heading North to boost its operations in Russia.

Today Nissan made a raft of major industrial announcements confirming plans for further significant localization within the Russian market. The announcements, made by Nissan Executive Vice President Colin Dodge during a visit to Moscow, demonstrate Nissan’s long term commitment to Russia and underline the company’s plans to continue expanding its local presence within the market.

These efforts are to accomplish the goal of gaining 10% share of the rapidly growing Russian market by 2016 which will be achieved by tripling annual sales from the 2011 total of 161,000 units. Currently they have bout 6 percent market share.

Nissan press release:

Capacity at the St Petersburg Plant will double to 100,000 units in 2014FY. The announcement follows last year’s capacity increase at the plant which currently manufactures the Teana sedan, X-TRAIL SUV and Murano crossover, to 50,000 following the introduction of a third production shift.

Nissan will now invest a further ?167 Mn to add 50,000 square metres of new production facilities, including Press and Plastics Shops. As well as bringing total plant capacity to 100,000 units, the expansion will enable St Petersburg to produce up to five different models simultaneously.

This will include the next generation Qashqai which will be built locally for Russia in St Petersburg, while Sunderland Plant will continue production of the popular crossover for other markets.

Nissan is also exploring further opportunities provided by its strategic partnership in Russia. The company recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Alliance partner Renault and Russian Technologies for the Alliance to increase its stake in AvtoVAZ – Russia’s largest car maker – from 25% to over 50%.

As a direct result, Nissan can also confirm that the AvtoVAZ Plant in Togliatti will play a major role in the industrialization of the Datsun brand in Russia.

In March it was announced that Nissan will launch Datsun initially in high-growth markets, including Russia, to fulfill the unmet needs of a growing number of customers through exciting, locally developed and manufactured products.

The brand will play a major role in the company’s business expansion plans in Russia, where it is anticipated Datsun could contribute up to a third of Nissan’s total sales.

Colin Dodge said: “Russia is Nissan’s largest European market and is going to grow significantly in both size and importance over the mid-term, and could account for around a third of our overall European sales by 2016.

“Nissan already has a very strong local presence and, today, we are the largest Japanese car maker in Russia and one of the largest overseas brands, but we want to triple sales and double market share over the next four years.

“To achieve this we are going to continue placing the customer at the heart of everything we do by offering innovative, relevant models that, increasingly, are developed and produced within the market.”

By 2016 up to 80% of Nissan’s sales within Russia will be manufactured locally, ensuring the model range will fully meet customers expectations in terms of quality, choice and delivery lead time.

In FY 2011 Nissan achieved 161,000 unit sales in Russia representing a massive 57% increase on 2010. From early next year, Nissan will compete in the mainstream segment for the first time following the launch of the all-new Almera sedan.

The car, which will be produced locally in Togliatti, was developed specifically for the Russian market and will offer outstanding value, unique Japanese design, interior space not previously available in this market sector and world-class quality.